The electoral flaws which Turkey’s ruling AKP used to trigger the cancellation of the March 31 Istanbul mayoral vote also occurred in last year’s national elections, meaning President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should have his mandate annulled, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said on May 8.

Votes for Istanbul officials and district assemblies, submitted in the same envelopes used in the mayoral election, should also be cancelled if the mayoral vote is rerun, it added. The AKP won a majority in the councils but lost the mayoral vote to the CHP’s Ekrem Imamoglu when the local elections nationwide came to be regarded as something of a referendum on the Erdogan presidential administration given Turkey’s descent in the past year into the economic morass.

Turkey’s High Election Board (YSK) on May 6 announced the Istanbul mayoral election is to be rerun. In its ruling, annulling Imamoglu’s mandate, the YSK cited irregularities in the appointment of polling station officials. The AKP and its ultra-nationalist MHP ally pointed to how individuals who were not public servants had been appointed to the polling stations. They claimed it amounted to organised crime and also complained that some voting records were not properly signed off.

The CHP said it was a nonsense that the YSK left results for district administrators, municipal councils and local officials unchanged because all four votes, including that for the mayor, were cast in the same envelope and counted by the same polling officials.

“If you’re revoking Ekrem Imamoglu’s mandate... then you must also annul President Erdogan’s mandate because the same laws, same regulations, same applications, same polling stations and conditions were present in both elections,” CHP Deputy Chairman Muharrem Erkek told reporters.

“Why are you not cancelling the results that came out of the same envelopes,” he said.

Asked about the ruling, Imamoglu said democracy was the victim. “The municipal council, crystal clear. The local officials, great. The district administrators, also okay. But the mayoral, there is an issue there,” he told Turkey’s Fox TV on May 7. “When Ekrem Imamoglu wins as mayor, you complain of irregularities. How can this be in line with anyone’s morals?”

Imamoglu is now representing the election re-run as a battle for democracy in Turkey. Around a million people including several prominent artists have used the hashtag #HerSeyCokGuzelOlacak (Everything Will be Alright) to show their solidarity.

The Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB), representing Turkey’s top lawyers, said the YSK’s ruling had no legal basis and demanded that it publish a detailed justification, according to Reuters.

The YSK has yet to set out its reasoning, which it is legally obliged to do. It has also not made it clear when it will rule on the CHP’s appeal against the annulling of the mayoral vote.